The English metalcore band Asking Alexandria has built an particularly zealous fan base through relentless touring over the past three years. Their sophomore release, 2011's Reckless & Relentless, reached number nine on the Billboard 200 and got them their American TV debut on "Jimmy Kimmel Live." While still a relatively young band, they have already racked up more hard knocks and rock star stories than we'll ever have. The band's lead guitarist Ben Bruce was nice enough to share a few tales of booze, boobs, Bon Jovi and Big Macs. Thank the rock gods there are still bands like these blokes.
So you just flew in, right?
Yeah, I think I'm a little bit drunk from yesterday, to be honest.
It's better to be drunk than hungover.
That’s right.
When you're on tour, how do you avoid living like crap?
If I'm honest, we do live like crap on the road and I'm not really sure how long we'll last. If we have any road favorites, unfortunately, it's McDonald's. When we get cravings, we just have to stop there and get our daily Big Macs, which is not necessarily a good thing. You get drunk and get a Big Mac. That’s the way it goes.
What's the weirdest venue you have ever played?
It wasn’t a Chuck E. Cheese's--I don’t remember the exact name of it but it was like a Chuck E. Cheese's. It was a little fast food joint. We played in the game room and that was a high point for us. It was one of our first shows ever, after which we went down, played all the games, went in the little kids' area, got some ice cream...wasn’t all bad.
Have you ever had a dangerous show where people were throwing things?
There was an incident somewhere in Arizona, I can’t remember exactly where, but I remember we were playing and the security guards were a straight edge crew. We were having fun and a girl flashed her tits and we were like, "Boobs!" Some guy in the crew got offended by that and said we were sexually harassing this chick, and being disgraceful, and grabbed our bassist off the stage. When I got offstage, they grabbed me and pinned me against the wall and just basically kicked the s*** out of us. I said, "If you don’t like looking at boobs and prefer cock, that’s fine by me, but don’t take it out on me."
Do you have any surprise influences?
I'm really influenced by great guitarists like Gary Moore and B.B. King. It may not be obvious when you listen to us but there is a lot of blues, soul, '60s, '70s and '80s influence in our styles. I also like Bon Jovi. I started introducing myself as Bon Jovi, actually, hoping it would catch on and then I would be able to walk in the Rock Hall of Fame, but I chose the wrong rock star apparently. He’s not in the Hall of Fame.
If you become Bon Jovi, you have to stay in New Jersey forever.
I don’t want to get stuck there.
You've gotten tattoos for people before. Has anybody gotten a tattoo of you?
There’s a lot of people! Which is crazy, I mean I’ve got people coming to me like, "Look, look!" and they’ve got my signature on their arms and I'm like, "I don’t remember signing this." I saw one person with a tattoo of my face on their shoulder, which was crazy!
Have you ever had an exceptionally insane groupie?
We were in like Alabama and some girl ended up back at our bus. She stripped butt-naked and had us tattooed right above her vagina. And, uh, tried to have sex with me, Danny and James at the same time and...yeah. Wanted us to take a picture with our penises next to her ass and touching her vagina, which was a little bit disturbing. Safe to say none of us--well, one, I won't say which one, partook in this particular activity.